A discussion of discourse analysis focuses on its usefulness as a framework for analyzing and improving the communication skills of international teaching assistants (ITAs). The discussion is based on the transcript (appended) of a native Chinese-speaking ITA conducting an organic chemistry class in English. Using discourse analysis at one level, that of language beyond the sentence level, the errors in phonology (pronunciation), grammar, coherence, and cohesion can be perceived more clearly. A second level of discourse analysis can be used to examine utterances in terms of communication intention and appropriateness to the social content, i.e., to interpret them. It is concluded that in the context of the interactions of ITAs and students, discourse analysis can serve an important function in helping ITAs improve communication on more than one level. (MSE)